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Washington, DC – Teach For America and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s (HHF) Latinos On Fast Track (LOFT) Institute in partnership with the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) and The Raben Group will host the LOFT Actionable Leadership Summit to train and equip 50 selected Latino college students to make a measurable impact on America’s communities going forward. The Leadership Fellows will represent 35 colleges and 15 states and will attend a two-day interactive training in Washington, D.C., featuring Hispanic experts from various fields on September 14th and 15th. As part of the application process, each of the students submitted an Action Plan for their community which will be executed and measured for impact with the support of HHF. The goal is for each student to positively impact 300 individuals more for a total impact of 15,000. To support the Actionable Leadership effort, please donate at http://fundly.com/loftactionableleadership.
Throughout America, ordinary people are doing extra ordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world. Every week the White House invites these Champions of Change to meet and share their ideas with the White House to win the future. Eleven of the 50 LOFT Fellows have been selected as Champions of Change and will be meeting with White House officials and featured on http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions.
Beyond the Summit, the students will remain in contact to exchange ideas and best practices, and access support and resources on LOFTnetwork.org, an online community of 75,000 Latino students and young professionals (aged 18-28). Through different technologies including mobile phones, the students will document their projects throughout the year and will receive ongoing support and guidance from established leaders who will post content and engage students virtually through the online platform.
“We believe young Latinos possess the intellect, capability, and determination to define a new legacy of leadership and uplift their communities and America,” said Antonio Tijerino, president and CEO of HHF. “It is in this spirit we will convene to prepare young Latinos for successful leadership and provide the opportunity to learn from those who are currently influencing public policy and business in our greater community. LOFT is a leadership movement which is led by youth. And by focusing on ‘actionable’ leadership, we expect to make an immediate and measurable impact. Teach For America profoundly understands the need to put leaders in a position from which to lead and education is the starting point to success for a community and country. We are proud to partner with Teach For America, NHLA and The Raben Group in this important effort. We also applaud the White House for recognizing the importance of leadership in moving America forward.”
The students voted on three key issues they feel are priorities for American Latinos, which provide a unique student-leader point of view – Education, Immigration and Social Change. Summit participants will attend seminars on relevant policy issues, hear from a select group of experienced leaders from diverse fields, and engage in skill-building workshops focused on:
- Communications
- Fundraising
- Building networks
- Mobilization & Advocacy
“It is exciting and inspiring to see so many young Latino leaders coming together to learn and affect change for their communities,” said Patricia Leon-Guerrero, Director of National Alliances for Teach For America. “This summit’s mission aligns with Teach For America’s work to bring more outstanding Latinos into education and help them develop as the next generation of leaders who will work to ensure we’re expanding educational opportunity for all children.”
The Actionable Leadership Summit is being coordinated the day before and day of the Hispanic Heritage Awards at the Kennedy Center (visit www.TheHispanicHeritageAwards.com) and the students will attend the prestigious event in an effort to “bridge the intergenerational divide between established leaders and those who are preparing to take on the mantle of responsibility,” said Josh Dickson, a member of LOFT who, along with his Harvard classmate Jonathan Padilla developed and are overseeing the Actionable Leadership Summit. “Bringing these groups together around a common purpose – the future of the Latino community in the U.S. – will begin an ongoing conversation which will educate, empower, and elevate the level of discourse around the future of the community.”
“This summit will also catalyze a discussion of national Hispanic issues that need to be raised in the 2012 election cycle and beyond,” added Padilla. “By expanding out from the ‘traditional’ issue that our community has been pigeon-holed with, i.e. immigration, we can get to the root of the needs of our community right now and the needs of our community moving forward into the future. The issues and topics covered will serve as starting points for engaging with current national leaders and the beginning of a running dialogue for years to come.”
The LOFT program is designed to prepare Latinos to lead in the classroom, community and workforce while providing a network of support. LOFT consists of three components:
- LOFT Network is an online community made up of 75,000 vetted Latino students, and emerging and established professionals ranging starting at age 18
- LOFT Institute provides leadership training, industry-specific workshops and orientations, in-depth “charlas” with experts, connectivity to other members and established leaders, educational grants, networking and content
- LOFT Workforce provides mentorships, fellowships, internships, and full-time positions with Fortune 500 companies and government agencies – the key to LOFT Workforces’ successful model is a delivery system which is tailored to the sponsors’ industry
Students and professionals are encouraged to join the LOFT Network at www.LOFTnetwork.org or Jessica Barajas at jessica@hispanicheritage.org for more information. For more information on the Actionable Leadership Summit, please contact our summit team at LatinoLeadershipSummit2011INFO@gmail.com.
Hispanic Heritage Foundation
Since 1987, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) has identified, prepared and positioned Latino leaders in the classroom, community and workforce through their unique continuum which includes the Latinos on Fast Track (LOFT) program. HHF’s focus is to help a Latino youth help a hundred. Visit www.HispanicHeritage.org and for a brief video featuring the young leaders visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1UUfAjgbmw.
About Teach For America
Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. This fall, 9,300 corps members will be teaching in 43 regions across the country, while nearly 24,000 Teach For America alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence and equity. For more information, visit http://www.teachforamerica.org.
For more information about The Raben Group, please visit www.RabenGroup.com. |
